aesys and sagthoxal are the first, two demons. as primordial beings, they reign throughout the hellish circles of inferno with an iron fist, with aesys bearing the crown as the queen of inferno and her younger brother, sagthoxal, as her knight. aesys ruled over inferno for eons on end, however, unbeknownst to her, sagthoxal has been planning behind her back to overthrow her rule. sagthoxal mounted a coup with his disciple, yzannath, who had lulled and manipulated even the most loyal of aesys' demons to dethrone her. the war lasted for millennia, until aesys was felled by yzannath's trap and then banished into the mortal realm; nameless and defeated
just as it was with his sister, sagthoxal now ruled inferno with the savagery befitting to tame the masters and denizens of the realm. in a cruel twist of fate, however, sagthoxal met the same fate as his sister did eons prior, as he was then betrayed by his wife, inara, who planned a revolt against the king with tezuman, a chaotic demon repeatedly mistreated by both aesys and sagthoxal's regime. to ensure that sagthoxal would not return to reclaim his usurped seat in inferno, inara and tezuman sealed the mad demon god into the cosmic backwaters wherein the sealed gate lied on an unknown location on earth. the two demons attempted to entomb sagthoxal's loyal disciple, yzannath, into the same fate. but in a split second, he managed to trick inara and tezuman into a trap, escaping the duo's scheme
eons pass after this chain of fateful incidents. but as human civilisation grew and flourish, these demons would find themselves forgotten and weakened by the imbalance that the mortal world had imposed against their infernal home. to curb this issue, demons, especially powerful ones, have entered into unholy pacts with a select few humans willing or foolish enough to sign a contract with these cunning entities, granting them their souls in exchange of unfathomable powers and fortune
however, time would soon betray the current state of the cosmos, as sagthoxal's vengeful, slumbering echoes would ring into yzannath's ears, pleading the demon to release him from his sealed state. proving himself still as a pious devoter to the demon god, yzannath came to a plan to locate the gates to sagthoxal's seal to enact a profane ritual to bring his master back from his ageless sleep. catching wind of this situation, inara ascended to the mortal realm with her benefactress in an attempt to stop yzannath once and for all
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the plot takes place in the kingdom of valldeaux in the regia supercontinent, a large technologically-advanced medieval-esque nation circled by the valldeaux snowpeak mountains where the gate to sagthoxal's tomb lies within its deepest cavern. a majority of valldeaux citizens and its royal court are devout followers of the church of the unmasked
right beside valldeaux is grandis, a poorer nation which, although recognised by the international community as an independent state, is under the political and economic whims of valldeaux. grandis is rich in minerals, but almost all of it is monopolised by valldeaux
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demons are more akin to gods, but is classically arrogant and manipulative, some even more so. only few demons are able to temporarily traverse in the mortal realm, and fewer more are powerful enough to make a pact with humans. demons are bound to either inferno or the void, the latter of which is the place of origin of aesys and sagthoxal and, true to its name, devoid of anything and everything but dead stars in stagnation and doomed alternate universes and timelines. accordingly, demons need a bond with humans to freely walk in the mortal world, the only way this is formed is through a pact. demons who are successful in forming a pact with humans are called patrons, and are typically powerful and feared by their kin
beneficiaries are select humans who have formed a pact with a demon, trading their souls in the covenant to be granted immense powers. beneficiaries are physically no different than regular humans, but the more intuitive one could detect another of their kind through the slight coloured shine in their eyes. aside from the powers granted by their respective demons, beneficiaries are gifted with nigh-immortality and could lengthen their lifespans to the extremes. although since they have traded their souls to their patrons, beneficiaries are unable to die without the consent of their demons. only rarely, however, do demons take the lives of their beneficiary
the church of the unmasked is the largest religion in the world. the church worships a god known as senmaska the creator, who promises a lifetime of eternal bliss beyond death. unbeknownst to its followers, the church is a religion fabricated by yzannath, and senmaska is in reality, sagthoxal. every prayer made by the church's followers, every crusade the church lead, and every miracle performed by the church all feed into sagthoxal's god-devouring maws.
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